


The New Editor | Cowchop

by VagabondWocky



Category: The Creatures | Cow Chop RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:28:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 21
Words: 14,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26289502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VagabondWocky/pseuds/VagabondWocky
Summary: Brett hires a new editor who's kind of big in the editing community. She may work weird hours but she gets the job done so no one complains.Leola King, known by her online tag as InterSomnia, has edited videos for a lot of big YouTubers. All the way from League Of Legends YouTubers like BunnyFuFu and Imaqtpie to all around gamers like Markiplier and Jacksepticeye. She's forever wanted to be an editor for Roosterteeth and when they get her application they send it to Brett since they don't need any new editors. Join Leo as she becomes friends with the members of Cow Chop. Will romance grow?(it will...)//This is a really big throwback fiction that I was working on for a while. Leo is my character everyone else doesn't belong to me as I am not rich nor actually capable of owning another human being. (Also Dylan is my character)I mention it being a really old fic because, well, Cowchop doesn't exist anymore. But at the time of me first posting this fic to Wattpad there were members in it that had already left!And I used that archive tag because it is mentioned slightly but it is not actually in this book.
Relationships: Aleksandr Vitalyevich Marchant/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 1





	1. Brett Does The Hiring?

"Hey Joe I got a glock!" Aleks calls out.

"Me too." Joe calls back.

"Where ARE you?" James asks no one in particular before he starts yelling out, accompanied by some bullet sounds.

Brett puts on his headphones so he can continue working without further interruption. He may have his own office, but that didn't stop the constant screams from getting through.

"I got him!" James yells as they continue to record their video.

Brett goes to put a video on but see's a text from Burnie.

Burns: Hey man, sure you're busy but I remember you saying you were looking for an editor or two to help with the work load and I may have found someone

Brett: I'm free for a bit, who is it?

Burns: Sent her application to your email. Don't worry about checking it too much, shes way over qualified

Brett: Then why tell me about her? What made her over qualified anyway

Burns: She's edited videos for a lot of big youtubers but her dream job was to work for RT

Brett: Thought you guys weren't looking for new workers right now

Burns: Exactly, no it looks like she sent her app in a long time ago but you know how it is here, we never really get through them until later on

Brett chuckles at how busy he knew the RT offices were over in Austin as he pulled up his email. He spots the email from Burnie and opens it, clicking on the document to pull up the application. He notices that its quite a few pages long but immediately skips to the attachments and looks at some of the videos she had worked on. The first one he noticed was a recent one from Jacksepticeye and there were a few more under that one. Next to those were some Markiplier videos. A couple VanossGaming videos. A bunch from someone called BunnyFuFu and ImaQTPie. The list went on and on, including some links to her own youtube channel which upon further investigation, was filled with different video edits of CSGO, various animes, and more.

Burns: Whats up? You looking through her app?

Brett: This girl has edited for literally some of the biggest youtubers, and her dream job is to work for RT, but you're not gonna hire her?

Burns: We really don't need any more editors right now but you guys do

Brett: Think she'll want to work for us? Not like CC is the biggest part of RT, from her experience it looks like she was planning on working with the AH guys

Burns: Funny you ask that, already called her and she said working for CC would be an amazing opportunity as long as you guys would have her and put up with her weird hours

Brett: Weird hours?

Burns: Have I told you about Monty's hours when he animated for us?

Brett: So basically she'll work all night and sleep all day

Burns: It's a good business investment, she's got a lot of talent

Brett: Alright, thanks Burns. I'll give her a call

Brett decides to watch a few of her video edits. After watching a few of those he moves on to some of the videos that she's worked on. Deciding she was way too talented to not have work for them, he dials her number and calls her.

"Hello, this is Leola." A tired voice answers the phone.

"Hello Leola, my names Brett. I'm calling in regards to your application?" Brett explains, trying to ignore the screams in the background from James and Aleks.

"Oh! Hello, yeah Burnie said he was sending my application to you. Did you have any questions?" She asks, immediately sounding more awake.

"Uh not exactly, when do you want to start?" Brett asks as he scrolls through her app one more time. He hears a small cheer and then a cough.

"I can be in LA by Wednesday. I'll come by the office as soon as I'm in?" She says though it's more of a question.

"Sounds perfect. Bring all your information and stuff with you Miss King, we'll get everything set up when you get here. Any questions for me?" Brett asks.

"You can call me Leo, if I have any further questions is this number a good number for me to reach you at?"

"This is my personal number so you can reach me on it at anytime. Where do you live? It's not on your application."

"Currently I'm residing in Germany."

"Another question," He looks down at the date on his computer, "how exactly do you plan on packing all your stuff up and moving to LA in less than two days?"

"I don't have a bunch of stuff, it'll be easy." She answers with a light chuckle.

"Alright, good luck. If you need someone to pick you up from the airport let me know." Brett offers. The screaming from the guys outside had stopped and James and Aleks were leaning in the doorway.

"Is he having family visit?" James asks.

"Nah he's using his formal voice, hear how formal he sounds?" Aleks points out.

"I'll probably be getting in late so I won't bother you. Thank you so much for this opportunity, I'll see you soon." Leo says, sounding much more energetic than she was when she first picked up the phone.

"Who was that?" Aleks asks.

"We have a new editor, sent over from Burnie himself, too talented to let go." Brett answers, putting his phone down and closing out of the application.

"Where's she coming from?" James asks.

"Germany. She didn't have an address on her app so I guess she moves a lot." Brett shrugs. "Either way, we'll have a new worker by Thursday to help with editing. So spread the word."


	2. Safe Landing = Safe Office?

"I thought you said you'd be getting in late." Brett points out as she gets in the car and they pull away from the airport.

"I couldn't wait. It's been a while since I've been in LA anyway." Leo smiles and stretches her arms a bit.

"How does the living thing work with you? Do you move around that much?"

"Well honestly I just don't like staying in one place too long sometimes. I get bored of the sights and whatnot. Which I probably shouldn't be telling my boss but-"

"It's no problem, I get how you feel. Great thing with editing is as long as you have the files you can do it anywhere."

"Exactly! I think that's why I love it so much."

"So where am I taking you? Do you have a hotel or do you have a place?"

"Actually I got a nice apartment pretty close to the office, if you don't mind stopping off there so I can drop my bags off."

"Works for me, put the address in GPS for me?"

Leo nods and puts her new address into the GPS for Brett to follow. They had a while to go since the airport was so far away so she reached over and turned on the radio, settling on the classic rock station.

After a few songs pass, Brett's phone starts ringing through the bluetooth system. Brett hits the answer button on his wheel and the car is immediately filled with laughter but also worried voices.

"What's up Asher?" Brett asks.

"We pulled straws and I got the short one so..." Asher starts.

"Oh no, what happened?"

"There may or may not have been a fire-"

"A what?! Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah! Yeah no it was a small fire, just bigger than we usually mess around with but everyone's fine." Asher manages out and Brett lets out a sigh of relief.

"I'm gonna order some fire extinguishers off of amazon." They hear Joe say in the background.

"Shut the fuck up!" James yells and Leo giggles.

"I'll be there soon to deal with this, is the fire out?" Brett asks.

"Yeah yeah it's all taken care of and what not..." Asher mumbles out.

"Alright I'll be back soon." Brett says before hanging up.

"If you want to just drop me at my apartment, that's fine. I don't want to get in the way while you guys all deal with this fire nonsense. I can pop in later." Leo offers.

Brett sighs again and runs his hand over his face. "Would that be okay? I need to yell at the guys and I don't think it would be a great first impression for you."

"That's totally fine! I'll come by later with some food or something." Leo smiles.

Brett feels bad about having to make her unpack all her stuff, especially since she came here on such short notice, but he had to get back to the office and yell at the guys.


	3. Food & Clean & InterSomnia?

Brett had ended up staying late to help clean. He had given the guys a nice earful but not too rough because he didn't want to be the bad guy. Jakob and Trevor were stuck there, helping him clean up, because Asher was their ride and Asher wanted to stay to help clean.

Brett gets a text from Leola and takes a quick break to text her back.

Leo: Hey, just finished moving most stuff in. You still at the office? I can bring some food.

Brett: Sorry I couldn't help you move in and shit, I'm here with Jakob, Trevor, and Asher so if you bring food bring some for them too. I'll pay you back for wherever you go.

Leo: Great, see you in a bit!

Brett: Where are you going to get food?

Brett: Leo?

Brett: Alright, let me know when you get here so I can open the gate.

Brett had gone back to cleaning and about 3o minutes later he gets a text from Leo saying she was outside the gate.

"I'm not leaving guys, the new editor is here and she brought food so I'm gonna go let her in." Brett tells the guys as he goes to open the gate.

When she gets to the door he grabs one of the big bags she had and leads her into the first room.

"This is a lot of food, what all did you bring? Is this homemade?" Brett looks into the top of the bag he had taken from her as they enter into the kitchen area.

"Well I know you're a vegetarian so I made a bunch of things that don't have meat. I have some mozzarella sticks, some avocado egg rolls, I did some tofu sliders and then I did some normal sliders in case the guys don't like tofu, macaroni and cheese bites, I made toasted raviolis, and some cookie dough dip for desert. I wanted my first impression to be decent." Leo names the food items as she pulls the containers out of the bag and puts them on the counter. "Though I didn't bring drinks because I figured you guys have a bunch here, alcohol and not."

"You definitely didn't have to try that hard, the guys will eat mostly anything as long as we blindfold them." Brett smirks and Leo laughs.

Trevor comes over when he hears them laughing and Leo puts her hand out to shake his hand.

"My names Leola but you can call me Leo," She smiles and shakes his hand as Jakob and Asher come up too.

"This is Trevor, that's Asher and that's Jakob," Brett introduces the guys.

"Nice to meet you guys," Leo holds her hand out to shake Jakobs hand but he jumps up and down and does a spin and Leo just tilts her head a bit.

"You said you hired a new editor, you didn't say you hired THE InterSomnia!" He yells. Leo giggles as he shakes her hand.

"I didn't realize you were a fan, I'm a huge fan of yours too. Though it's kind of embarrassing now knowing that you've seen some of the edits I've made." She remarks with a light blush on her cheeks.

"To be fair, Asher showed me your page so he's more of a fan than I am," Jakob points out.

"We'll that's even more embarrassing because I know I've captioned some embarrassing shit on edits of you," Leo shakes his hand, both of them having light blushes now.

"We'll as touching as it is to see this whole idol fanboy interaction, she brought food for us and I'm hungry. Not to mention it's a perfect time to take a break from cleaning," Brett points to all the food on the counter.

The guys immediately cheer and start making plates, making sure to grab a little bit of everything. Once everyone has some food they settle down on the table and start talking about the fire.

"Joe ordered some fire extinguishers they should be in by weekend," Asher says.

"The fire smell really isn't going away is it?" Leo jokes and the guys groan.

"At least it wasn't that big of a fire." Jakob points out.

"This food is super good," Trevor points out.

"Thank you, I cook a lot for myself and I get picky sometimes." She shrugs.

"This is good to the level that you should add 'can cook' to your resume." Brett points out.

"Did you take cooking classes? Or well I guess some people learn from their moms." Asher asks, thinking out loud.

Leo kind of freezes when Asher says mom and the guys notice but she recovers and shrugs, "That's not exactly what I learned from my mom but that's for another time."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to go into weird territory," Asher apologizes.

"How did the fire start anyway?" Leo asks, immediately smiling at Asher to let him know it was okay.

"Well, James roasted Aleks for his channel so Aleks roasted the office," Jakob explains and everyone cracks up laughing.


	4. Interrupted Stream

The fans noticed almost immediately when Leo started editing videos for the company. The amount of people commenting on it only increased as the weeks passed. As more people pointed it out, more people noticed. And they wanted to know why the new editor wasn't in any videos like Asher and Trevor and Jakob and Lindsay and even Joe.

It had been around a month since she started and people were finally starting to calm down with the comments, especially since no one had confirmed or denied the existence of a new editor.

Aleks and James we're both at their home, preparing their stream of Fortnite. There was a pretty bad storm out but if either one of them lost power it would add to the comedic affect so they weren't worried.

They finally get their audio fixed and can hear eachother when people start asking about the new editor.

"Yeah we got a new editor, why are you guys so obsessed with them?" James laughs.

"No dude dude what have you done! Now no ones gonna shut up about her!" Aleks groans as people explode in chat about the new editor, saying how good she is and asking what she's like. It's the same on Jame's end as well.

"As much as I want to tell you guys what she's like, I've never actually met her. She works different hours than me and Aleks." James explains.

"Now who's ready for some Fortnite?" Aleks asks. James and him immediately join into a group on fortnite but as they're messing with their settings Aleks phone starts going off.

"Dude what the fuck is that? Is that your phone?! Really I thought you were more of a professional." James snickers.

"Oh dude it's Brett hold on," Aleks answers and puts it on speaker, "Hey Brett what's up?"

"Hey man, I know you just started streaming and all but Leo called me and she got locked in the bathroom at the office but I can't get there right now. Can you run down to the office or should I call someone else?" Brett asks.

Aleks looks at the stream and makes a weird face, "I mean I did just start so I can close it out and come back after if you need me to." Aleks makes a pained face and pulls his headset away from his ears to try and get away from James' yelling. "Also James wants to know why you didn't just call him."

Aleks hears Brett sigh before answering, "To be fair, I was going straight down through my contacts and called the first person I knew had keys to the office."

"James says sorry for yelling." Aleks says, "Yeah, I can run down to the office and save the damsel in distress." He says bye to Brett before hanging up and then waves by to stream before putting it on stand by.

By the time Aleks got to the office, the storm had gotten worse. He makes his way in and knocks on the bathroom door.

"You still alive in there, Leo?" He calls out. She doesn't reply at first but calls out a hesitant, 'yeah'. He can tell she's nervous so he quickly looks around the office for the tools.

It had been a good five minutes and a huge crack of thunder hits and the power drops, letting Aleks hear a small scream from Leo. He slowly makes his way back to the bathroom and knocks on the door. There was no way he was finding the tools now that the warehouse was basically pitch black so he was gonna have to break down the door.

"I'm gonna kick down the door, stand back from it okay?" He calls out before taking a couple steps back and lifting his leg to kick the door near where the handle was. One kick. Two kicks. On the third kick the door slammed open and Aleks breathed a sigh of relief. "Leo?" He calls out.

"Thank you," Leo whispers. She reaches out and feels him and takes a small piece of his shirt.

"I'm gonna lead you out okay?" Aleks says. He takes her hand in his and walks towards the glass door. He stops when he reaches it and turns to her.

"Sorry this is how we had to meet," Leo says with a soft smile as she wipes around her eyes. Aleks didn't notice before but it seems like she was crying.

"At least we met though," Aleks points out and she chuckles. "Well, since the storm knocked the power out, would you like to come back to my place and stream with James and I for a bit? We were gonna stream Fortnite then I came to your rescue."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were streaming. I didn't mean to take you away from that." Leo apologizes and looks at the ground.

"It's no problem, really. If anything you could make up for this by coming back and streaming with James and I." He points out.

Leo looks up at him and thinks for a few seconds before sighing and shrugging, "I guess I can do that." She smiles and Aleks does a small cheer.

"Now I get to brag to James that I met you and got to hang out with you officially before he did!" He cheers then leads her out to his car.


	5. InterSomnia or Insomnia?

"Yeah, have you decided where you want to meet for lunch?" James says into his phone as he drives towards the office.

"A buffet would probably be the smartest idea, since we'll have such a large group." Geoff answers.

"Alright well I'm gonna pop into the office for a bit to finish editing this one video I've been putting off."

"Alright, I'll see you in a bit." Geoff hangs up and James parks his car, heading into the office.

Most of the other guys had the morning off since they were doing a lunch with Geoff so he could tell he was the only one in the office. Which he quickly realized wasn't true as he made his way to his desk. Leo was asleep at hers. She had her jacket rolled up and was using it as a pillow, which left her tattoos on display.

He noticed the lining on the purple lotus and the Chinese style dragon that swirled all the way down her arm was perfect, next to the small flowers she had on her neck? They were a little shaky. Though, looking at it, it could be meant to be shaky. He grabbed one of the Cow Chop blankets and draped it over her before making his way back to his desk, ready to finish editing the video.

About an hour later he notices it's time for him to leave for lunch. He looks over to Leo and sees she's still asleep so he decides to brew some coffee. He saw she had a cup in front of her so maybe the smell would wake her. So he makes his way to the kitchen area and brews some fresh coffee, pouring one cup for Leo then one for himself.

"Good morning," Leo yawns as she walks over to him, "When did you get here?"

"This is for you," James hands her the coffee and she thanks him. "I got here maybe an hour ago. Are you going to lunch?"

"Yeah, I usually just sleep at my apartment so I knew if I went home I wouldn't wake up to go to lunch. Though I'm glad you came because I didn't mean to fall asleep here." Leo chuckles and sips the coffee.

"Didn't you want to work for Roosterteeth before you got a job here?" He asks as he leans against the counter.

"Yeah, I've been editing for years with the idea that I'd get to edit videos for them one day." She smiles and adjusts her jacket, which she had tied around her waist.

"So you're pretty excited to meet Geoff?"

"Oh fuck yes I am," Leo says and James laughs, "Is it super noticeable? I don't want to seem like super fucking fan girly."

"No no you're fine, I'm sure he'd be fine with a little bit of fan girly anyway. Did you want to ride with me? We're probably gonna be late." James offers.

"May I? I don't drive to work since I live so close."

"Yeah, are you ready to go?" James asks as he puts his empty coffee cup in the sink. Leo doesn't even respond, she downs her cup of coffee and nods. They laugh and head out the door.


	6. Lunch With Geoff Ramsey

Brett and Aleks had stopped by the hotel to pick Geoff up and were the first to arrive at the buffet. No thanks to Aleks who took his sweet time finding his sun glasses. They had asked for a room separate from the other eating area because they had a big party but the worker said they could just move tables together. Aleks just shrugged and Brett was like, "Their problem."

Trevor, Jakob, and Asher had shown up a little after they did and helped pull another table up. The next people that showed up were Joe and Lindsey and they cheered that they weren't last because it was nearing 15 minutes after the time they were supposed to meet and Brett would yell if they were any later.

"Well I think I've met most of you before, did you say you had a new worker?" Geoff asks Brett.

"We do, I'm not actually sure if she's coming today," Brett offers with a small shrug.

"She works during the night and sleeps during the day." Aleks explains before Geoff could asks why.

"Are you guys talking about me?" Leo asks coming up behind Aleks and putting her hands on his shoulders.

"Maybe they were shit talking us for being late," James says with a laugh and Leo giggles before pulling her hands away from Aleks who now had a slight red tint to his cheeks.

"Sorry were late, I was in charge of directions and I messed up," Leo apologizes.

"You must be the new worker, my names Geoff-" Geoff stands and holds his hand out.

"Ramsey, I'm a huge fan. You were one of the people who inspired me to start editing." Leo shakes his hand with a smile, "I'm Leola but you can call me Leo."

"Nice tattoos," Geoff comments as he sits back down.

"Thank you, my brother did them. He'd probably die if he heard you compliment them," She laughs softly as she takes a seat in between James and Brett.

Everyone starts making small comments on work and small groups people went up to get food. The group was starting to get slightly louder and James and Brett laughed at how dumb the workers had been for not giving them the party room, which was empty currently.

Aleks gives Leo a weird look before standing up and going to the buffet. He quickly returns with a soup bowl that looked to be filled with chocolate from the chocolate fountain.

"Uh oh," Leo whispers and Geoff laughs.

"I knew it wouldn't be a calm lunch forever," Geoff smiles and leans back in his chair.

"I got Trevor a surprise chocolate soup because he loves soup," Aleks puts the bowl on the table in front of Trevor.

"Dude I'm not that hungry, that's a lot of chocolate." Trevor pushes the bowl away from himself.

"Drink it pussy," Aleks laughs and everyone starts chanting 'Drink it'.

Trevor gives in and downs the chocolate only to get the 'surprise' Aleks had put in there which was a nice, ripe, oyster. Immediately, Trevor spits up the oyster and a load of chocolate onto the table in front of him. Asher, who was sitting across from him jumps up and in the process, knocks over his drink which also makes Jakob jump up and knock his drink over as well.

Everyone is laughing their assess off and immediately the manager, who had been keeping his eye on the group, came over to Brett and Geoff and asked them to leave.

"Nice job guys, look at this, we're kicked out of so many places it isn't even a bit anymore," Brett says with a playful smile on his face. Everyone groans and they all leave.


	7. Drinking Makes People Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW | rape mention in this chapter

"I don't want to say it's boring around here, but I want some alcohol, and I don't mean from your collection you have here," Geoff comments.

"That's fine, usually Brett and I go out to a bar on weekends, there's a place that's really nice and it's not to far from here." Aleks offers and Geoff nods.

"James you in?" Aleks asks and James nods.

"Brett!" Aleks yells and Brett peaks his head out of his office, "Wanna go get drinks with us?" he asks.

"Why the fuck not, works done for the day anyway." Brett shrugs and disappears back into his office to grab his stuff before coming out and standing by them as they get their stuff.

"Are we all ready?" James asks, standing.

"Oh wait," Brett goes over to where Leo's desk was and taps her shoulder so she takes off her headset.

"What's up B?" Leo asks, using her nickname for him which makes him shake his head with a chuckle.

"We're going out for drinks with Geoff and I thought I'd extend the invite since I haven't really taken you out to celebrate you coming to work with us." Brett explains.

"Yeah, that would be a lot of fun. Now?" Leo asks and Brett nods. She saves her work before closing it and joining the guys by the door.

When they arrived at the bar they had picked a table that fit the five of them in a corner and sat as Aleks ordered 4 beers. Brett had decided to be the designated driver and had settled on a soda.

After everyone finished their first beer, Aleks ordered some shots. Everyone immediately down theirs, including Leo. James ordered the next round and Geoff the third.

It got to Leo and she ordered the fourth round but not one for herself, she knew she was already drunk enough and wouldn't need the extra headache of more alcohol in the morning.

"So none of you guys have girlfriends right?" Geoff asks.

"I don't have a girlfriend," Leo giggles.

"I didn't mean you but to each their own," Geoff laughs.

"There's a girl I'm talking to," Brett shrugs.

"Not me, I'm single as fuck," James says and Aleks agrees.

"I heard about the divorce, I'm sorry about that," Brett says to Geoff and Geoff smiles sadly.

"I think the only thing I miss about the marriage is always having someone around. I do get to see my kid when it's my turn though. How about you Leo? How often do you get to see your brother?" He asks

"Never," Leo shrugs.

"Does he still live in Germany?" Brett asks, "You can go visit him you know, we don't work everyday."

"Can't visit someone who isn't alive anymore," Leo drunkily smiles.

Brett immediately frowns and feels bad for mentioning it but no one else seems to really notice, including Leo. They were too busy drinking.

"It's almost time for me to visit my mom again, her birthday is soon." James mentions as he sips his beer.

"We can all take a small trip to visit her. Your mom is really cool," Aleks offers taking a drink of his beer. "How about you Leo, what's your mom like? I'd offer to visit her too but I can't leave the country."

"I mean, it's not like you'd want to visit my mother anyway. She's in jail." Leo shrugs.

"Oh shit. really? What for?" Geoff asks.

"Well if you want a list then first degree murder, rape, attempted murder, first degree assault, child abuse, probably some more that I can't remember right now," Leo shrugs again, sipping her beer.

As her list went on the others sobered up a bit and was at a loss for words. Leo, having been a big lightweight, didn't sober up that easily though and continued.

"I think I was talking to Asher and Jakob and Trevor and uh... you," She points at Brett, "When I said my mother had taught me stuff other than cooking I meant she rap-" She seems to catch herself and immediately stands. "Excuse me," she disappears into the bathroom.

The guys all look at each other with sad expressions. They waited out there for her for a while and she eventually comes out. She puts some money down on the table to pay for her drinks and smiles at the guys, trying to ignore the heavy atmosphere.

"I called an Uber, I'm gonna head home and get some sleep. Sorry if I ruined your guys night out. I'll see you at work," She waves before leaving.

Brett quickly stands and follows her out, grabbing her arm.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asks before she can say anything.

"Yeah, yeah no I'm fine. Do you mind if I take a couple days off of work?" She asks with a weak smile.

"Of course. If you need anything don't hesitate to call. We're all one big dysfunctional family at Cow Chop," Brett pats her head and she nods before getting into her Uber.


	8. Another One

Leo had started coming in every other night since she was getting the work done pretty fast. She had asked Brett if she could freelance her editing skills out for extra cash and he had said of course as long as Cow Chop videos came first.

Leo had been contacted by one of her previous clients because he had wanted to start uploading twice a day and needed a helping hand. His name was Forsi The Raven also known as Dylan Pope, he had just hit 14 million subscribers on youtube, and had gotten big playing elder scrolls.

As a joke Leo had made a short video edit of him for her instagram page, especially since she had gotten kind of inactive since starting to work at Cow Chop. She figured her fans would enjoy that since he was such a big youtuber, but she received more hate than love. A lot of people were asking why she would edit something that wasn't cow chop if she worked there. She just ignored it, she had gotten hate on her edits before and she wasn't about to start letting it bother her.

She had been working for Cow Chop for a couple months now and the guys hadn't seen much of her so they thought they had made her mad or something. Everyone would take days and leave small surprises for her on her desk so she would get it when she comes into the office at night. The gifts were anything from crap that James had ordered from Amazon to gift cards for music because they knew she loved music. She was extremely thankful for the guys and kept leaving notes for them to stop spending money on her but they didn't stop so she eventually started bringing in some home made food for them so they would have a surprise waiting for them in the morning.

A lot of people kept tweeting at her and asking her if she still worked for Cow Chop since they hadn't seen her in any videos and stuff. She decided to put everyones mind to rest and tweeted, "Working with CowChop is like being part of a dysfunctional family that works different hours but still love each other".

Aleks immediately retweeted it and sent her a snapchat of him flipping her off and she responded with a picture of him but badly edited with a caption that said 'I'm keeping this in the next video!" Aleks just replies with a text saying, 'u wont'.

After a bit most of the other Cow Chop guys had retweeted it as well as the official Cow Chop twitter page, whoever that was run by.

Though she thought that would end the hate, it didn't stop. Another few days had passed and if anything the hate had gotten worse. She had started blocking some people but gave up and went back to ignoring it.

She was editing Forsi's second video for the day when she got a text from him.

Forsi: Have you watched the video I put up this morning?

Leo: No, why?

Forsi: Just watch it ;)

Leo shakes her head and rolls her eyes before using her second monitor to open up youtube and pull up his channel. His newest video was titled, 'No More!' and she clicked on it.

It was a shorter video that basically called out the people that had been giving her hate. He called her an 'extremely talented editor' and said that if he didn't have her he wouldn't be able to upload his videos as often and that he was extremely lucky to have her. He finished the video by saying that any fans who continued to hate on her could no longer call themselves fans.

She scrolled down to the comments only to see that the comments were disabled. She sighed and grabbed her phone sending him a text.

Leo: You didn't have to do that, thank you, but I feel like it's too much

Forsi: Nonsense!

Leo just shakes her head and starts closing out the youtube before receiving another text from him.

Forsi: Wanna go get dinner sometime?

Leo: Only if you're paying

Forsi: It's a date then!


	9. Forsi The Raven On A Date?

When James entered work that morning it was quiet. He was late so he expected some people to be recording videos already, but he was wrong. Everyone was kind of gathered around Aleks' computer.

"What are you idiots looking at?" James asks, looking at the monitor.

"Leo is lowkey famous now," Asher shrugs and goes back over to his desk.

"What does that mean?" James asks, looking at the article.

Aleks scrolls tot he top and reads the title of the article, "Forsi The Raven AKA Dylan Pope Seen On A Date With A New Girl-exclamation mark- Who Is She-question mark exclamation mark-." He reads in a tone that James sort of recognized as jealousy.

"So? She's not allowed to have a boyfriend?" James asks but he seemed equally hurt that she didn't at least tell them.

Aleks opens his mouth to answer but Brett comes in and looks at what all the fuss is about.

"Wow look at her, getting more famous than we are." He chuckles before starting to walk to his separate office.

"You know it says in this article that she's a freelance editor, I thought she worked with us?" Aleks calls out.

"Yeah she works for us, and she gets the work done. Really fast. She asked me if she could do some freelance for extra cash and I told her she could as long as she didn't let it get in the way of our videos. So far she hasn't. Is there a problem?" Brett explains. Aleks shakes his head and lets out a sigh as Brett continues to his office.

"Want some coffee or something?" James asks Aleks as everyone else goes back to their desks.

"No," Aleks answers and goes back to working on his computer.

"Dude, what's wrong?" James asks sitting next to him at the card table.

"Nothing dude just didn't sleep well," Aleks shrugs.

"Are you mad that she's dating this guy?" James questions with a knowing smile.

"I'm not dude fuck off," He frowns.

"If you say so, I've heard he's a great guy." James says as he starts opening up stuff on the monitor in front of him.

"Yeah, behind a camera," Aleks mumbles.

"Have you met him?" James looks over at his friend.

"No, but I've seen the rumors." He sighs.

"What rumors?" James rolls his eyes, blaming most of this on Aleks bad mood.

"His ex came out and said a bunch of shit about him. It was shut up pretty quick since he's not exactly low on funds for crap like that," Aleks runs his hand through his hair and leans back in his chair.

"Well, if anything happens we'll be here for Leo." James points out.

Aleks just shakes his head and goes to the kitchen to grab a soda.


	10. Picture Frames

Leo had been working at Cow Chop as their editor for almost five months now and it was probably some of the best months of her life. She had made a small buffet and decided to go into the office early to see everyone. The last time she saw someone was when she went out for coffee with James a couple weeks ago because she had fallen asleep at the office again.

"Oh hey Leo, you're here early," Asher says when she comes into the kitchen area, "here let me help." He says as he grabs one of the large heavy bags from her and places it on the counter.

"Thanks Ash, maybe I should've just asked you to come over to my place to help carry the rest of the food." Leo chuckles lightly as she heads back to the door.

"Wait, you're gonna make more than one trip?" He asks walking by her side.

"Yeah, I still have two more bags with drinks and dessert stuff." Leo shrugs.

"I'll come help, I've finished all I needed to do today anyway." He offers and Leo smiles as they start the small walk back to her apartment.

The walk was a comfortable silence and when they arrived Leo quickly unlocked her door to let them in.

"This place is nice," Asher comments as he slowly follows her to the kitchen area.

"Yeah, there was a fire in the building behind this one so it was pretty cheap too." Leo smiles as she starts packing all the drinks into a bag.

Asher looks around the living room at all the picture frames. They were all the happy families or couple pictures that came in the frame already when you bought them. He frowns and lifts one that had a family of four in it.

"Hey Leo," Asher asks as he walks into the kitchen.

"Whats up?" She asks, not turning from her work of packing the bags.

"Is there a reason you have all these stock photos of families instead of pictures of your own?" Asher puts the picture frame back where he got it. Word had spread through the office of the incident at the bar with Geoff so people knew not to ask about it, but he didn't understand why she didn't just have pictures of her.

Leo had frozen when he asked the question but continued to pack again. "That's a bit embarrassing huh... I just think those families look pretty happy and whatever. Never really knew what a happy family was. I didn't want to leave the place empty,"

Asher just nods, still sporting a frown.

"You won't tell anyone else right?" Leo asks as she hands him one of the bags.

"It'll stay between you and me," Asher nods as they make their way back to the office.


	11. The Ninja Walmart Trip

It was about to be 10 AM and it was probably the earliest in the morning that Leo had ever left her house. When she got to work everyone was surprised to see her but she quickly got to editing.

Trevor, Asher, and Jakob moved their chairs so they could see what Leo was doing so they could maybe learn a thing or two.

"Any tips for us?" Trevor asks.

"Uh... Know the keyboard short cuts? It really helps cut down the time you spend looking for the different options and what not," Leo explains. They all nod their heads and continue to watch her.

She was starting to get uncomfortable under all their watchful eyes and looks, thanking the time for passing so quickly.

"Wow guys look at the time, almost noon! Why don't you guys head out to grab lunch." Leo says raising her eyebrows.

"Oh yeah! Want us to get you something?" Asher asks as they all stand. Leo just nods and watches as they walk away.

When they leave she quickly closed and saved all of her stuff before standing and grabbing her bag with her laptop in it.

"Where are you going?" Aleks asks with a smirk.

"To hide out in Brett's office, tell them I went home," She ruffles his hair as she goes to Brett's office to hide, leaving Aleks with a light blush from her contact.

About half an hour later the guys returned and all groaned when Aleks told them she went home. They left her food in the kitchen and Aleks grabbed it sneaking it to Brett's office through the other door.

About another hour later Aleks comes back to Brett's office and proposes an idea for a video. Leo hadn't been paying attention until she felt Aleks kick her foot gently. She took off her headphones and looked up at him.

"What's up?" She smiles.

"I have to run to Walmart to grab stuff for a video and was wondering if you wanted to come with. It'll give you a chance to stretch your legs and take a break." He offers. Leo doesn't even answer, she just stretches a bit and stands up with a nod.

"See you later Brett," Leo waves to him as she sneaks out the front door of his office and out the front door of the warehouse to Aleks' car.

When they get to Walmart Aleks immediately goes to the section with costumes and grabs a ninja costume. He opens it and puts on the head piece and looks at Leo which causes her to start laughing.

"Don't open that before we pay for it!" She giggles.

"Don't worry about it dude, it's not like I won't be buying it," He laughs as he throws the container in the cart.

They spent a good hour and a half fucking around in Walmart before paying for everything and leaving.

Aleks stops by Stone Cold Creamery for ice cream and insists on paying but Leo beats him to it and buys their ice cream.

Now they're back in the car heading back to the office. Leo's smile hasn't left her face since they got in the car leaving the warehouse.

"Thanks, Aleks," Leo smiles at him.

"For what? I dragged you to go shopping with me," He laughs lightly.

"Thanks for the good time," She smiles.


	12. A Bad Relationship

After being forced to eat edible spray paint, Asher and Jakob decided to go out and grab lunch. They gathered everyone's orders and left.

When they came back, Leo was with them.

Jakob and Asher make their way around the room and distribute peoples food that they had ordered while Leo sits down at the card table with Trevor, Aleks, and James.

"How did you end up with them?" James asks as he starts unpacking his food.

"I was walking home, they just happened to see me and offered to give me a ride." Leo shrugs as she sips her boba tea that she had shown up with.

"Don't you have a car? Why were you walking?" Aleks asks.

"Oh Forsi took me out on a date earlier but he had some emergency come up." Leo shrugs.

"So he left you? Where were you walking from?" James asks, seeing that Aleks was getting angry.

"He took me to Rio's, I don't mind though. I need to walk more anyway. My job is kind of to sit in front of a computer all day so," Leo shrugs again with a smile.

"Dude what the fuck, Rio's is on the other side of town!" Aleks exclaims, "where were you when Jakob and Asher got you?"

"Hmm... I had just passed the McDonalds." Leo thinks aloud.

"The one that's like three blocks away from here?!" Aleks asks and Leo nods.

"That's pretty bad," Trevor points out.

"I don't mind walking though. I mean, it's not his fault something came up." Leo frowns.

"What's it like dating a guy that almost has fifteen million subscribers?" James asks.

"More normal than you'd think. Though for our first date he took me to this really expensive french restaurant. It was pretty uncomfortable but the food was good." Leo shrugs.

"Does he take you anywhere that isn't expensive? Rio's is pretty expensive too," Trevor thinks as he finishes up his lunch.

"No, I think he likes showing off how much money he has." She chuckles softly.

"How have you-" Leo starts to ask how everyone is but Aleks cuts her off.

"Sounds like a shitty fucking relationship," He says in an angry tone before putting his headset on and going back to whatever he was working on.

"What's up with Aleks, did something happen?" Leo asks with a frown. It hurt her more than she wanted to admit when he was angry.

"He li-" Trevor was starting to say that he liked her but James cut him off.

"The new meme in his stream chat is for everyone to call him a lesbian and compare him to Ellen and he's pretty annoyed by it," James explains and Trevor gets the message and nods.


	13. Almost Interrupted Stream Again

"Why are you guys spamming the minecraft creeper emote?" Aleks asks with a laugh. He had finished streaming but he was hanging out with chat for just a bit before heading to bed.

"No like, what's the meme? I missed i-" Aleks starts but is cut off by a message popping up on his phone. He jumps to read it since it's from Leo.

Leo: Hey, I have a question about this thing I'm editing that involves you. Are you awake?

Aleks: Yeah, one second brb

Aleks turns back to stream and quickly says bye to everyone before closing out stream then opening up skype. He starts a call to Leo and is surprised she answers almost immediately.

"Whats up?" Aleks asks, trying to hide how excited he was to be chatting with her.

"Oh, yeah so... I'm editing this BTS video and you said something about the area around your apartment and thinking about it, someone creepy enough could totally find where you live. I didn't know if you wanted me to bleep it out or not." She explains.

"Oh shit dude yeah, thanks so much." He says. He hears her hum a small okay then he hears her clicking away on her computer.

The quiet was nice so he didn't bother interrupting it. He pulled out his phone and started scrolling through twitter and replying to people and what not. After a few minutes he hears her start quietly singing a song in french and humming along to the beat. When she finishes that song she starts quietly humming the next one and he assumes she one, has music playing in her headset and two, forgot he was there. He just shakes his head with a small smile and listens to her humming for a good half hour.

She stops humming and the clicking stops so he assumes she watching a video back to make sure it's complete.

"So why don't you sleep at night?" Aleks asks. He hears her yell 'fuck' and laughs at her, "sorry didn't mean to scare you."

"All good, you're so quiet I forgot you were there," Leo adds with a sigh. It got quiet again for a good five minutes before she sighs again.

"I have really bad insomnia but my internal clock was pretty fucked up during my childhood so it's just easier at this point for me to sleep during the day and edit at night," She explains.

"Oh really? I had insomnia back when I lived in Denver," he says, glad they have something in common.

"Wow really? I can-" Leo started to say but her phone rings, cutting her off. "Oh what's up Forsi? It's almost midnight are you okay?" She asks, picking up her phone.

"Listen there's this last minute vacation I planned and I'll be gone all next week so I need you to edit some videos for next week so I can set them up to be uploaded automatically." Forsi explains.

"Some videos? How many?" She asks, grabbing her notepad to write down the details.

"Fourteen." He says.

"Okay, when do you leave?" She asks writing down 'Forsi-14' on her notepad.

"Monday." He answers.

"Are you fucking kidding me, Forsi? It's Thursday!" She exclaims, dropping the pen she was using to write.

"Yeah yeah whatever, I know you can get it done." He shrugs and lays down in his bed.

"You want me to edit... fourteen videos, in three days?" She asks, her voice cracking a bit. Aleks hears her side of the conversation and shakes his head, getting upset.

"Babe, babe don't worry. I know you can do it," Forsi says in a fake sweet voice.

"I... I know I can do it. It'll just be cutting into my sleep hours." Leo sighs again.

"Great! Get them to me by Sunday night so I can set up the bot. Ill talk to you then!" Forsi calls out before hanging up.

Aleks doesn't know if he should say anything because he doesn't want to scare her again so he stays quiet until he hears her let out a shaky breathe.

"I need to get back to editing, I'll talk to you later Aleks." Leo says, sounding like shes about to hang up.

"Wait!" Aleks calls out.

"Hm?" She mumbles.

"I'll bring you a coffee in the morning." He adds.

"That would be really nice Aleks, thank you so much. Sleep well," She says with a soft smile before hanging up the skype call.


	14. The Phone Call

Leo's phone had been going off non stop since noon. She had a decent following for her edits and she tried to keep her notifications on so she could stay active with her followers. Though the stuff that was being spammed to her, she didn't want to see. Some one had caught Forsi making out with a girl on the beach yesterday and it was everywhere. Then someone got video of him going into her hotel room later that day. It had been too much for Leo so she just ignored it. She believed that Forsi would tell her and explain everything when he got back.

Brett had woken up early and figured he'd head to the warehouse early to get a head start on his paperwork for the day. However, when he got there he found Leo sitting at her computer, with tears running down her cheeks.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" He asks in a worried voice.

Leo nods and quickly wipes her tears, "My allergies have been really bad," she explains but her voice cracks a bit and Brett just gives her a really worried look.

"I'll be in my office if you need anything," He pats her shoulder softly before going into his office where he immediately texts Asher.

Brett: Hey, didn't know if you were awake yet or not but Leo is crying and won't tell me why

Asher: Are you asking me why she's crying? Why would I know?

Brett: You know. Fanboy.

Asher: There's been a few videos circulating of Forsi with another chick while he's on vacation, latest one was him going into what is assumed to be her hotel room- you won't tell her I told you right? You can just google it or whatever I just don't want to seem like a stalker...

Brett: I'll let her know that you're stalking her, thanks for letting me know

Asher: You wouldn't! I'll see you in a bit, want me to bring you something from micky d's?

Brett: Sure, bring a something for Leo too

Asher: Kk

Brett puts his phone down on his desk and runs a hand over his face, sighing. He couldn't deny that he had come to care for Leo in the short time that she had worked with them. He cared for everyone at Cow Chop, and it hurt him to see them hurting.

Unless it was him hurting them.

He hears the front door open and James calls out 'good morning' as he heads over to his desk. Leo grabbed her backpack and laptop and quickly made her way to Brett's office.

"Need something?" He raises his eyebrows.

"Nope, just gonna continue to edit in here," Leo shrugs as she sits down on a bean bag that she had brought in. The few times she was still at the office when the guys got to there she always hid in Brett's office so she could edit in peace.

Asher arrived a bit later and dropped off Brett and Leo's breakfast to them. Leo thanked him and insisted on paying him back but Asher wouldn't let her, saying it's just the start of him paying her back for all the food she brings to the office.

A couple hours later, Brett turns to Leo to ask her a question but finds her asleep. He chuckles softly and grabs a blanket, draping it over her. As he does this he hears her phone start ringing. Not wanting to wake her up, he quickly answers it.

"Good, you answered. One of the videos you edited that I scheduled to go up at noon is corrupt and isn't posting properly. I need you to fix that and put it up like now, I've already gotten a bunch of tweets of people asking me where the video is and if it's pushed back any further it'll look bad on my end," Brett hears a guy, who he assumed if Forsi, saying in an angry tone. Brett sighs and leans back in his chair as the guy continues, "and I know you're usually asleep during the day anyway but you do fine with little sleep so I need this done, you've fixed corrupted videos before anyway so fix it."

"Are you done?" Brett asks.

"Who is this? Where's Leola?" Forsi asks.

"This is Brett, Leo's boss."

"Cool story, uh is she there with you right now? Since you answered the phone can you go ahead and make sure she knows the problem," He says in a sassy tone.

"Do you speak like this to her all the time or are you just too busy with your side chick that you've forgotten she's your girlfriend?"

"I'm only dating her so she'll edit my videos better than yours, make sure she knows to fix the video for me or she'll be in trouble," Forsi says before hanging up.

Brett clenches his jaw and has to hold back from tossing the phone. He looks down at Leo and notices she still has some dry tears on her cheeks and decided to let her rest for a while more.


	15. Definitely A Bad Relationship

Leo had waken up around 7 and had went home to shower and change before coming back to the office to continue editing. Trevor had called in with the flu and Leo offered to edit his videos for him so he could just rest instead of editing from home.

The next day Leo decides to stay and hang out with the guys and around lunch time Brett orders enough Chinese take out for everyone.

"Dude I swear they bully me worse when I'm streaming with you!" Aleks argues with James jokingly. They had been discussing streaming together for the past ten minutes and Brett and Leo just sat across from each other laughing.

"What do you mean dude! No one bullies me so it's just you," James points out.

"That means it's your followers that are doing it then, did you send all your bullies over to me?!" Aleks laughs.

Aleks and Brett's phone beep with the ringtone that means someone's at the gate.

"Why didn't yours beep?" Aleks asks James as Brett pulls his phone out to check on who it is.

"Dude I muted that a long time ago, I don't give a fuck when someones at the gate," James laughs.

"Who are you?" Brett says into his phone, the microphone on the camera at the gate letting him communicate, and usually chase fans off.

"I'm here for Leola," The voice says

"It's Forsi!" Leo cheers softly and gets up running out the door. Aleks had pulled out his phone and was looking at the guy through the camera.

"Dude he even looks like a douche," Aleks points out and shows his screen to James who nods in agreement.

The three guys watch as Leo runs up to Forsi and goes in for a hug to welcome him back. But as she goes to hug him he pushes her back and she falls on her ass. Immediately Brett is out of his chair and walking angrily out to them but James grabs Aleks arm to stop him from going as well. James knew Brett could hold himself back if he needed to but Aleks? No way.

Leo quickly stands back up, embarrassed and hoping the guys didn't see her fall.

"What's wrong babe?" Leo frowns as she rubs her hands on her jeans, flinching slightly from the small scrapes they now had.

"What do you mean, what's wrong? Are you fucking dumb or something?" Forsi crosses his arms and looks down on her.

"I don't... what?" Leo looks up at him, feeling really small.

"Yesterday, the morning video corrupted and didn't post! I was on vacation so of course I couldn't fix it! I had to record a short apology video for my fans, do you have any idea how many people tweeted at me yesterday?" Forsi asks, not expecting an answer. Brett looks at Leo and can see she's close to tears and gets ready to step in and say something before Forsi continues, "I gave you one fucking job and you couldn't even do it right. Maybe next time I go out, I'll just lock you in a room at my place so you do your job correctly."

Brett notices Leo freeze but he looks at her and sees no trace of emotion on her face. She breathes in before crossing her arms.

"Well actually, my JOB is to edit one video for you a day. Ten days ago you gave me three days to edit 14 videos for you, which you didn't pay me for by the way. Then on top of that you've already had me editing two videos for you almost every day for the past two months. And I've completed all of them. So don't act like one video going wrong is my fault." Leo says in an icy tone. She turns a bit and notices Brett standing there and her face immediately softens and she forces a small smile on her face before continuing, "Either way, this isn't a conversation to be having at my workplace. We can talk about this later."

"Bitch," Forsi mumbles under his breath before he slams his car door and speeds away.

Leo watches him leave and lets out a shaky breathe.

"Are you okay?" Brett gives her a worried look.

"Yeah... Yeah I'm fine. I'm gonna head home. Thanks for the lunch, I'll bring in breakfast in a couple days for you guys." Leo smiles at him and gives him a small wave before starting to walk back to her apartment


	16. A Date? No... Yes? No.

Aleks: Come outside

Leo: Excuse me? If you're going to kidnap me just know that I know kung fu and karate and a couple other asian words

Aleks: Lol come on I ordered chinese and we have to beat the delivery guy to my place

Leo: Alright, let me change real fast

Leo changes into some comfy clothes and grabs her black hoodie, knowing she might get cold later then runs out and hops in Aleks car.

"Why?" Leo asks as he drives towards his place.

"Figured you needed a break from everything. A movie night is just the thing!" He chuckles and Leo just nods.

When they arrived at Aleks place, the delivery guy had just parked and was getting out of his car. Aleks tosses his car keys to Leo for her to lock the car as he runs over to the deliver guy. Leo just shakes her head as she gets out of his car and locks it, heading towards the door she assumed was his.

"Have a good day!" Aleks says to the delivery guy before he joins Leo and unlocks his door, letting them both in. "Make yourself at home, here's the food." He hands her the food then goes to his kitchen.

Leo makes her way through the apartment looking around until she found the living room. She sits down and pulls the foot rest closer and starts laying all the food out.

"What would you like to drink?" Aleks calls out as he grabs some cups from a cabinet.

"I don't care," Leo calls back.

"If you say that I'm gonna bring alcohol!" He warns with a laugh.

"I'll just take whatever, OTHER than alcohol," She laughs.

Aleks puts ice in the two cups and grabs some things of soda, heading to the living room to join Leo.

"What do you want to watch?" Aleks asks.

"You're the host, you pick."

"Well you're the guest, you pick."

"Dude it takes me hours to pick audios for my edits, I'll waste the whole night deciding on something to watch. You pick."

"Dude, how about we binge the purge movies?"

"I'm down for that, have you been stalking my instagram?" Leo asks, knowing she posted a Purge edit a few days prior.

"Maybe, gotta know your friends." Aleks says as he pulls up one of the Purge movies and starts it.

Once they finished eating Leo and Aleks moved all the food to the floor so they could prop their feet up. They started the second movie when a chill passed over Leo. She rubbed her arms and realized she left her jacket in his car but she didn't want to say anything. Aleks noticed her chill though and pulled his jacket off, handing it to her. She doesn't say anything, just gratefully accepts it, and Aleks was thankful that the lights were off so she couldn't see the blush on his cheeks when he saw how good she looked in his clothes.

Once they finished the third movie they both stood and stretched before plopping back down on the couch, closer than they were before.

"I thought girls were supposed to be scared of those movies," Aleks chuckles.

"You jumped more than I did, is there something you want to say?" Leo jabs his arm jokingly.

"Alright alright, how about a funny movie?" He asks elbowing her arm back.

"I've seen good shit about The Interview, like really good shit."

"The Interview it is!" Aleks says as he uses his controller to search for the movie then start it.

About halfway through the movie Aleks jumped a bit when he felt a sudden weight on his shoulder. He put his hand over his chest to calm his heart down and laughs softly at how much the Purge movies had actually gotten to him. He looked down at his shoulder and his heart beat immediately sped up again when he noticed Leo asleep on his shoulder.

He turned the movie down a bit and slowly stood up, lifting her head then laying her down on the sofa, grabbing a pillow for her head.

He left for a brief second to grab a blanket and drapes it over her, careful not to wake her. He studied her face, amazed at how stunning she was. He frowns when he notices her hair was in two buns on the top of her head and reached up, carefully undoing them. He figured it would be uncomfortable to sleep with your hair tied up.

Leo let out a little sigh and rolled onto her side, causing Aleks to freeze thinking he had woken her up. He calms down when she doesn't move again.

He reaches across and pushes her hair behind her ear gently and placed a soft kiss to her forehead.

"If only you realized you deserve better than him..." He mumbles before sitting down on the ground in front of the couch and leaning his head back against her as a pillow.


	17. Day After

Aleks' alarm went off right at 8:30, like it did every morning except for Sundays. He didn't feel like getting up so he ignored it but a movement from his pillow made him wake up.

"Aleks?" He hears Leo's small voice whisper.

"Mm five more minutes mom..." He mumbles, wanting to hear more of her morning voice.

"I don't wanna be called your mom, that's weird." She giggles gently.

"Sorry dad," He chuckles.

"I didn't know your voice got so deep," She smiles and plays with his hair since his head was laying on her stomach.

Aleks just hums lightly and leans his head back, enjoying her touch.

"What time is it? I fell asleep during the movie I'm sorry," She spologizes and stretches her other arm out, keeping one hand on his head.

"My alarm went off so a little past 8:30." Aleks mumbles out and groans when Leo sits up quickly.

"In the morning?"

"No PM, I just didn't go into work today and decided to set an alarm for tonight," Aleks jokes with furrowed brows as he finally opens his eyes and looks back at Leo. "You okay?"

"I haven't... slept through the night in years," She mumbles and sits up properly.

"Well maybe my couch is just that comfortable." He stands and stretches.

"Yeah... maybe," Leo agrees, not wanting to admit that it might have actually just been his presence that made her feel so relaxed.

"What do you want to do?" Aleks sits back down on the couch next to her.

"Why are you asking me? You have work." Leo points out with a chuckle.

"I can be a little late, wanna go get breakfast?" He asks.

"Do you think I'll be okay in this?" Leo looks down at what she had been wearing the previous night. It's not like she was dirty or anything.

"I think you look great," Aleks says in a soft voice, not wanting to sound super obvious about how gorgeous she was.

Leo feels a light blush on her cheeks and stands up stretching again. She reaches up and feels her hair, frowning when she realizes it was probably super messy.

"Oh yeah, here you go," Aleks pulls two hair bands off of his wrist and hands them to her. "I thought it might be uncomfortable to sleep on a tight bun so I took them out."

"Thank you, that was really thoughtful." She smiles and takes the hair band. "Uhm, I just need to freshen up a bit then we can go to breakfast. Where's the bathroom?"

"This way," he leads her to the bathroom, "I'm gonna change real quick, would you like anything?" He asks and she shakes her head before disappearing into the bathroom.

Leo frowns at her appearance in the mirror and runs her fingers through her hair, pulling it into a messy bun on the top of her head. She wets her hands and washes her face, she would be upset that she didn't have any concealer for the bags under her eyes but she didn't have any bags to cover.

She exited the bathroom and smiled at Aleks who was standing in the living room pulling head leather jacket on, it had slipped her mind that she was still wearing his other one but he wasn't about to remind her.

"How does IHOP sound?" He asks as he grabs his keys.

"Dude, it's IHOB now, get it right." Leo says and they both laugh as they exit his apartment and he locks the door. "But yeah, that's fine with me." She says and they head to his car, ready to finish off a great night with a filling breakfast.


	18. Surprise Birthday Gifts

"Hey Brett, I didn't know if you knew or not but it's Leo's birthday today." Asher says, leaning in the doorway of Brett's office.

"Earlier notice would've been nice, how do you know?" Brett asks immediately standing and walking wtih Asher back to his desk.

"I had it saved in my phone from something she said on Instagram a couple years ago." Asher explains, "I guess I missed the notifications earlier."

"Everyone gather!" Brett calls out in his loud voice. He may not use it often but when he does, people listen. "Asher has just informed me that it is Leo's birthday. Usually we do stuff together like that time we went out drinking for Joe's but Leo doesn't really like alcohol so I was thinking we should just have a small thing here at the office. I think she'd appreciate it more." He explains and everyone agrees.

"I actually..." Asher raises his hand and everyone turns to him. "So I told her I wouldn't tell anyone else but I think you guys should know because she one of us. When I went to her apartment once, she had all these picture frames up but they weren't like... What you'd expect I guess..." He starts.

"Dude spit it out," James chuckles.

"They were all the stock images of happy families and stuff that come with the frames when you buy them." Asher finishes his thought.

"So? Wasn't that back like within the month that she had moved? Maybe she didn't get to changing them out." Joe offers.

"No, I asked her and she said it was because she never had any pictured of happy memories in picture form and had no idea what a happy family really looked like so she kept the pictures because it lightened the place up," Asher frowns and everyone's quiet for a heavy minute.

"Everyone send me your pictures you have with her, I need to run out and get her present." Brett says, breaking the painful silence.

"Oh shit, yeah we all have to go." Aleks points out as he grabs his keys and runs out the door.

That night Leo makes her way into the office, crop top shirt and sweat pants and Alek's jacket which she was glad she still had. She didn't expect everyone to jump out and yell Happy Birthday and it scared the ever living fuck out of her.

"Guys what the fuck! It's like 9:30 at night, shouldn't you all be home?" Leo asks with her hand still over her heart.

"We couldn't miss your birthday!" Anna exclaims.

"I haven't celebrated in years, it really isn't that serious." Leo chuckles. She could feel Aleks' eyes on her and was suddenly self conscious about what she was wearing but when she looked at him, he also had a light blush on his cheeks so she brushed it off.

"Come on come on, to the COWch!" Trevor yells as Lindsey grabs Leo's hand and drags her over to the couch for her to sit.

"Me first fuckheads!" James yells before he hands Leo a small box. She thanks him and opens it revealing a 50$ gift card for Editors Keys keyboards. "I know the backlit keyboards are a little more expensive but no store had a card for them more than 50 so let me know and I'll cover the rest of the cost."

"I wanna go!" Jakob yells. "I know it isn't much but I know, as an editor, how helpful this shit it." He explains as Leo opens his gift bag which contained a bunch of different kinds of note pads and post it notes. It had a bunch of binder clips and some cool pens as well.

"This is so helpful Jakob, I write everything down," Leo admits with a laugh then she thanks him and Asher hands her some papers.

"The first paper is the sign in stuff for a crunchy roll premium account that I got for you and the second is the receipt for a year of anime loot boxes in your name." He explains.

"You saw my post on instagram huh? You beat me to it," She laughs.

"I know this seems pretty expensive and you'll try to not accept it but I'll have you know that I bought one and the second one came at a discount," Trevor explains as he hands her an Up Band. "It tracks your sleep so you can track how much you don't sleep." Leo laughs and puts it on.

Lindsey got her a shirt that says 'edit or be edited' and another one that says 'eat sleep edit'. Joe and Anna chipped in together and bought her a brand new Bose headset.

Aleks gives her two books. One of them being The Cool Stuff In Premiere Pro and the second being Art Of The Cut. "You've definitely been stalking my instagram." Leo giggles. She goes to put the books in a bag and a small envelope falls out of one.

"Wait! Don't open that, not yet..." Aleks rubs the back of his neck nervously. Leo looks at him but nods and puts it back in the book.

"I feel really weird getting gifts from all of you guys, but thank you so much. This means so much to me." Leo smiles at all of them.

"Dude you didn't even point out that I didn't give you something!" Brett laughs as he pulls out a big box and hands it to her. "This isn't just from me, this is from all of us."

Leo looks around at everyone and notices they all have genuine smiles on their faces. She opens it and it reveals a few things that are wrapped individually. She pulls out the first one and it's a framed picture of her, Anna, and Lindsey giving the camera a peace sign. She smiles and lays it next to her grabbing the next one. She unwraps it and it's a framed picture of a dog pile with Trevor on the bottom, then Asher, then Jakob, and then her on top acting like it was her throne. She unwraps the next and it's a picture of her on Brett's shoulder with her arms in the air like she just won a battle.

She felt the tears in her eyes as she grabbed the last wrapped one and unwraps it, revealing a picture of James and Aleks sandwiching her on the cow couch.

She looks down in the box and the tears flow down her face openly as she lifts the final present from the box. It was an album that had cow print on it and it said The Cow Chop Family Album across the front.

Leo looks up at the group and locks eyes with Brett.

"We're one big happy dysfunctional family," He smiles at her.

"I love you guys," Leo manages out but her voice cracks and she starts sobbing, happy sobbing, but sobbing none the less.

"Family hug!" Anna calls out and they all rush Leo giving her a huge hug.


	19. Test Kitchen Pro

"...so today you'll be making something with vegetables basically and then we'll be having someone very high up in the food world tasting your dishes. You just have to make sure your dish is vegetarian!" James finishes explaining. Aleks hadn't been listening but Asher nods.

"And you have 30 minutes.... starting now!" James calls out and Asher jumps into action.

"Asher, already getting a head start on his opponent, Aleks, who doesn't even seem to understand that the round has started." James monologues.

"Dude, I don't wanna do this." Aleks grabs his phone and starts looking for recipes. He immediately drops his phone and runs to the door when he hears it open, knowing at this hour that it had to be Leo.

"What the fuck is he..." James starts but deadpans when he sees Aleks dragging Leo into the kitchen area.

"I'm pretty sure this isn't allowed, is this allowed?" James looks straight at the camera.

"You never said it wasn't!" Aleks calls out as he explains that the dih just has to be vegetarian.

"On it..." Leo looks around at all the ingredients on the table, mentally cringing at some of the stuff that should never be used in a dish anyway. "Are you going to help?" She asks Aleks and he shrugs.

Leo pulls out a couple cucumbers and starts peeling them before cutting them up and throwing them in a bowl. She hands Aleks a spoon and then hands him the bowl. "Put yogurt, dill, salt, peper, and mayo in there and mix it."

"What?" Aleks freezes, immediately forgetting the list she told him.

Leo was already looking through the ingredients grabbing a can of chickpeas and adding them to another bowl. "Find some yogurt," She says and he nods adding some yogurt. "some of that canned dill that's already chopped," She starts mashing the chickpeas waiting for him to add the dill.

"Now throw in a little bit of salt and pepper," Leo instructs as she starts chopping up some onions, parsley, and garlic.

"And now finish it off with the some mayonnaise." Leo says as she finishes adding the chopped ingredients into the bowl.

"I did it! I helped," Aleks says as he puts the bowl down.

"Great, now mix this." Leo giggles as she hands him the bowl of chickpeas with the other ingredients.

"Alright!" Aleks laughs as he continues to mix the bowl.

Leo just shakes her head as she combines a bunch of stuff into a bowl.

"So, master chef Leo, what just went into that bowl?" Asher asks, trying to add some more commentary.

"Uh... an edd, some cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, cayenne, lemon juice, and some baking powder. How's your dish going?" Leo lists.

"Not as complex as yours apparently. I'm making some baked mac and cheese with a bunch of different vegetables in it," Asher explains, sounding troubled.

"What's wrong?" Leo asks as she continues mixing her ingredients together.

"I don't think the bread crumbs I put on top will get crispy enough in the few minutes that I have to put it in the oven," Asher sighs.

"Use the blow torch," Leo says as she grabs the chickpea bowl from Aleks and starts adding her bowl into his and combining it together.

"Dude don't help Asher he's the enemy!" Aleks complains as he watches Leo mix.

"Aleks, honey, it's okay. Can you grab me some bread crumbs?" Leo pats his head, turning back to mixing the ingredients, missing Aleks nod quickly with a light blush on his cheeks.

Aleks hands Leo the bread crumbs and she thanks his as she mixed the breadcrumbs in slowly. She takes the mixture over to the stove and heats up a pan with some oil in it.

"I don't want to actually do most of the work so you're gonna do this part. It isn't too hard though. Cook it like you would a burger." Leo pats Aleks shoulder then leaves to go over to edit.

"What's the sauce for?" Aleks calls out.

"It's a cucumber sauce," Leo answers.

"And what are these?" Aleks asks.

"Falafels, serve the sauce on the side." Leo calls out as she sits down at her desk to edit.

Leo was off in her own world for a while until she felt someone patting her shoulders. She leaned back and slid her headset off.

"Yes?" She asks with a smile.

"Brett didn't believe it was me that made that dish," Aleks chuckles, both his hands on her shoulders now.

"I didn't expect him too. Remember that time you didn't know what part of the crab was meat and what part wasn't?" She points out, feeling her cheeks warm up at his touch.

"Okay well to be fair, I might have burned the falafels a bit,"

"I know, I could smell it."

"Brett scraped off the burnt part,"

"But did you win?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't budge about you helping me and Asher didn't admit it either since you also kind of helped him."

"Well congratulations," Leo smiles up at him.

"Maybe we could do that again sometime?" Aleks asks, hoping he didn't look too red.

Leo smiles and nods. "Yeah, I'd really like that. I'll bring the ingredients."

"It's a date!" Aleks says happily but freezes a bit, "I mean... No since..." He didn't want to say Forsi's name.

"A friendly date," Leo mumbles, not wanting to say his name either.


	20. The Pick Up

James, Aleks, and Brett were all sitting at the table in the kitchen area unboxing some stuff and doing dumb shit for behind the scenes when Brett's phone went off.

"Dude how unprofessional! You're the one that told us to put our phone on silent," James laughs.

"It's Leo, one second," Brett answers the phone.

"And this is the part of the video where we get to make moaning noises while Brett is on the phone!" Aleks cheers.

"You need me to pick you up? Where are you?" Brett asks and starts to stand up. "If you're at his house why can't he drive you home?" He asks, an annoyed look crossing his face. His face seemed to soften immediately before a more angry look crossed his face. "I'm on my way, send me the address. No don't start walking, it's storming out and you'll get sick." He says into his phone as he starts walking out.

"Where are you going?" James calls to him.

"Forsi's house apparently. I'll be back later." Brett says as he heads outside to his car.

"Can I come with you?" Aleks asks, opening the door to the warehouse to follow Brett.

"No, she didn't sound great. Besides if she wanted you to come then she would've called you." Brett brushes him off as he gets in his car and opens the gate, driving away.

Half an hour later Brett was nearing the address Leo had sent him when he saw her walking on the side of the road. He slammed on his breaks and she looked up at the car, making sure it was only Brett before she got in the car.

"I thought I told you to wait there, how long have you been in the rain? You're gonna get sick." He frowns. He reaches in the back and grabs a towel that he had in his car in case something happened at the office.

"Sorry, the atmosphere was really heavy I just didn't want to be around him anymore," Leo mumbles, thanking him for the towel and using it to cover her legs.

"What happened?" He asks, knowing she might not want to talk about it but asking anyway. "And where are we going? Want me to take you home or back to the office?"

"Home..." Leo states. It's quiet for a few minutes then she breaks the silence. "He found the letter Aleks gave me for my birthday."

"Letter? What was it?"

"A really really nice love letter. Written like we were back in the 1900's, like he truly cares about me. I kept it in my laptop bag, which I guess is a good place to keep it if you don't have an invasive boyfriend," She lets out a shaky breath.

"Like he truly cares for you? Aleks cares for you."

"How do you know that?"

"Really? It's super obvious. Maybe it's because I notice everything but... He's liked you since you started working for us half a year ago."

Leo feels her cheeks warming up but she doesn't know if it's because she's getting sick or if she was actually blushing.

"Thanks for getting me," She thanks him as they near her apartment. "You won't tell Aleks about this right?"

"What if I said I will?"

"I'd say okay then go inside and cry," She shrugs.

"I won't tell him." Brett says looking over at her.

"I know you have more to say but please spare me the lecture," She lets out a shaky breathe again.

"Fine I'll spare you the lecture part, break up with him. He's bad for you and he's using you."

"Thanks for getting me Brett, I promise I'm gonna be okay," She hugs his before getting out of the car and rushing inside.


	21. The Stream Was Interrupted Before It Started

Leo: Hey, I know you tweeted about streaming just now but I needed someone to talk to for a bit, are you busy?

Aleks: I haven't started the stream yet so it's no bother, whats up?

Leo: Kind of wanted to complain about Forsi but I can do that online so let's just chat

Aleks: Nah dude complain, I wanna hear it

Leo: Are you sure?

Aleks: Go off sis

Leo giggles softly at her phone and Aleks updates his stream, saying he'd be a bit later.

Leo: He ignores me so much, like I'll text him different stuff all the time but he wont respond unless I mention something about editing one of his videos

Leo: But like, if he texts me, he actually gets mad if I don't respond quickly?

Leo: Like the other day I was sleeping so I didn't respond for a couple hours and he was pissed but when he finally calmed down he just started talking about this video that he wanted me to edit

Aleks: Did Brett tell you what he told him?

Leo: No, Forsi told me he called for me and Brett answered and was being a dick, which I don't believe but I never heard anything about what was actually said

Aleks looks down at his phone, not knowing if he should tell her or not. He figured she deserved to know.

Aleks: Forsi told Brett that he was only dating you for your editing skills, so that you'd put more thought into his videos or something

Aleks watches his phone, waiting for a reply. He saw the read message so he knew she saw it but she wasn't responding.

Aleks: Break up with him, you can do better

Leo: He's literally like the only one that'll put up with dating someone like me. Have you ever heard of any other person so fucked up they can't sleep normal hours? No one will have me

Aleks: Try me

Leo: What?

Aleks: I said try me

Aleks waits, knowing she read the message. A few minutes later he jumps, his phone ringing actually scaring him, but he rushes to answer it.

"Yes?" Aleks says, not having checked the caller ID.

"Yes." He hears her soft voice and he jumps up.

"Yes what?" He asks, feeling his heart going fast.

"Sorry I took so long to reply I just uh," She pauses and takes a shaky breathe, "called and broke up with Forsi so..."

"You'll be my girlfriend?"

"Yes."

"Dude fuck yes! Are you gonna be up tomorrow morning? I'll take you to breakfast, or dinner I guess if you won't be up, I won't be mad." He starts speaking quickly.

Leo giggles and his heart jumps. "I'll come to the office and bring lunch for us tomorrow, goodnight Aleks, enjoy your stream."

"Goodnight babe," Aleks says, immediately tweeting out that his stream was starting.


End file.
